ISRO worries over US restrictions

Published: Wednesday, April 30, 2008, 16:10 [IST]

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Bangalore, Apr 30 : Even though the Indo - US cooperation has given impetus to joint space research, the ban on some of the concerns associated with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is worrying the scientists.

In an exclusive interview, the chairman of ISRO G. Madhavan Nair inangalore on Tuesday has said that the ban on some of the sister concerns by US was a cause of worry and wants to take up the issue with US.

After the successful launch of ten satellites from one space vehicle, India plans to launch Chandrayaan-1, the satellite system to the moon in the third quarter of this year. Madhavan Nair said: "We are definitely making an attempt to improve our relation with the US space agency, NASA. I have already established a good contact with Michael Griffin, Chief of NASA."

He said that the effort had helped in bringing two instruments on board the Chandrayaan-1.

However, Madhavan Nair said that the ban on some of the sister concerns by US was a cause for worry. He said: "Normally the US system has got many checks and balances within them and that takes lot of time to get through the hurdles. Yes I think even today the fact that some of the ISRO units are under the entity list, that's not a happy situation so we have expressed to them also and I hope it will improve in time to come."

Madhavan Nair said that ISRO is going to launch its space vehicle GSLV using India's indigenous cryogenic engine by the end of 2008.

"As far as cryogenic stage is concerned we have fully qualified it on the ground. Close to 7000 seconds of testing has been done on that and we have full confidence on the performance of the engine. Now, we are preparing the flight stage. After Chandrayaan, we will take up the GSLV with indigenous cryogenic stage. So, with the flight I think GSLV will be totally indigenous.

Questioned on the demand by the Indian Defence Forces for an exclusive satellite, the Chairman said the existing satellites could do multiple and exclusive tasks to cater to the demands of defence forces. The ISRO is also engaged in diverse field of activities. The national telemedicine project, he said, has been able to cater to the demand across the country.